Devotion as sentiment commitment and attainment
Hare Krishna So i'm grateful to be here amongst all of you at the lotus feet of Shri Radha Kala Chandi And thanks. Thanks to all of you for coming here today to the evening. I'll speak today Do we need this lamp How do you switch it on Okay, thank you So, thank you So today i'll speak on the topic of Devotion Is not just a sentiment It is also a commitment I'll talk about this in three parts and What devotion is And how it is a commitment and how as a commitment it leads to the ultimate attainment All of us We are driven and defined by our feelings We are all at our core creatures who think and creatures who feel And Often our feelings Determine our actions much more than our thoughts We try to think rationally but often our Emotions Emotional faculty is like a giant elephant On which our rational faculty is like a small rider If this rider doesn't have the proper goad to control the elephant then the elephant will run amok and the rider will just be taken for a Not not at all comfortable ride So we are often driven and defined by our emotions Now emotions themselves are Not bad, in fact emotions Are what make life worth living? But at the same time not all emotions Work for our best interests sometimes I was I was once giving a youth meeting in In melbourne and there are some One student asked a question after that.
He says why is it? That traditional societies are against love What do you mean with that no Most traditional societies all over the world. They are in favour of arranged marriages Whereas modern society love marriages. So it says traditional societies are against love It says it's not I explained that first of all this nomenclature Of love marriages and arranged marriages.
It is a biassed nomenclature because it presumes that in arranged marriage. There is no love Isn't it? It assumes that love is something that simply happens Yes, sometimes some people may see each other for the first time and they may feel attracted What the movies call as love at first sight You see someone and then you see a piece of electricity running through your body Or whatever like that now that love at first sight may happen And that may be the initial point for the relationship to begin But what will determine the longevity and the stability of the relationship? is not What happens at first sight? It is what happens after many sites So actually The beginning point may be anything beginning point Maybe the people two persons meeting each other and becoming attracted or the beginning point maybe some elders introducing to people What is the emotion that is there in the long run in the relationship? That is what determines the relationships longevity and stability and for that purpose even even in normal human relationships Now there are psychologists. There is a lot of study of the psychology of love nowadays And psychologists say that romance has a bench life of around 12 months What that means is that actually when two people are attracted to each other There are certain hormones such as dopamine and others which are secreted in the brain And that's why people feel very excited when they are in the presence of someone And that hormonal secretion Which leads to the infatuation the attraction that lasts for about a year And after that Although they are they come in the presence of that other person.
Now, there is no hormonal secretion And then they feel I don't feel attracted And if they're not having any stable foundation for the relationship Then naturally every person has some limitations has some flaws So initially we are attracted to their good points and then what happens is we start seeing the Other side of that person and then the same two people who initially said that I can't live without you You know after the hormonal attraction goes down they say I can't live with you So the point is that in any relationship there may be sentiment There may be attraction in the beginning But for the stability of the relationship what is required is commitment It is only when there is commitment. Sometimes we may feel good. Sometimes we may not feel good But when there is commitment the relationship goes on steadily And the in principle what applies to our human relationship also applies to our divine relationship when we approach god At that time Some of us may when we come to a temple or participate in a kirtan or When you go to a holy place or come to a spiritually sanctified atmosphere we may experience something mysterious some deep peace Some very sublime kind of calmness a serenity And When we experience this what is this I feel good coming here I feel good and that good feeling which we get That is often What makes people come towards some holy places some spiritual places? And that feeling is good.
It reminds us that actually There is something more to life So We go around the world Chasing different pleasures. I started by talking about how our emotional faculty Is like an elephant which just gets captivated so Various things in the world. They promises eat this and you will enjoy buy this and you will enjoy You know watch this and you'll be delighted So we are all our mind becomes like an elephant Just chasing this thing that thing that thing and just keep chasing things And we do get some pleasure in those things but the pleasure Is actually very short-lived The feelings that come from getting desirable worldly things Though those feelings lost for a very short time You get a say a new smartphone when new iphone comes up.
We get it We say i've got a new iphone and then we show everyone i've got a new iphone And then after some time what happens that the iphone becomes old and we don't feel anything special suppose we get a We get some new clothes most fashionable clothes You know, and then actually the whole pleasure of wearing those clothes is everybody should see those clothes See how good you look And if you find that everybody is wearing those same clothes Or the same fashionable clothes then it becomes old fashioned So oscar wilde said that fashion Is a form of ugliness So intolerable that we have to change it every six months That which looks so attractive initially afterwards We want to feel special by having that fashionable thing But when that same fashionable thing others also start having it Then because the old fashion I want to be special and to be special we want to get something new. It's something new So in this way we end up chasing one thing after another after another after another Just as there is alcoholism which is addiction People get compulsive. They can't live without it.
They just keep drinking keep drinking. So like that. There is another form of addiction just called a shopaholism Shopaholism means people are compulsive shoppers It's a shop shop shop shop till you drop It's like that just keep shopping keep shopping because if somewhere in some product out there I'll get pleasure So yes, we may get pleasure But it is a very short-lived pleasure So our mind becomes like an elephant Which is just charging away and we If our intelligence is not very strong, we just become like a helpless rider buy this get this enjoy this And as we are becoming more and more of a materialistic society where everything becomes dispensable and replaceable so it's Not only the phones that I use or the cars that I use But even the houses the jobs and even the spouses We change everything But through it all we never get any lasting satisfaction Why because we are driven by the emotions When we are driven by the emotions that it is not that that object is not satisfactory It is rather the mind Has got a habit of being dissatisfied So whatever we get Sometime the mind will get pleasure afterwards.
It will say enough. I want something more If we have that habit of dissatisfaction Then no matter what we get it will not satisfy us Krishna talks about this in the bhagavad-gita He says this is the characteristic of the mood of passion in 14.12. He states So he says the characteristic of the mode of passion is insatiable desire The desire it is not that the desired object. It is not satisfactory It is that the desire itself is insatiable So no matter how attractive an object I'll get The in the mind that is in the mode of passion.
You think oh, there must be something better. There must be something better So those who are driven simply by sentiments by emotions They simply keep chasing Not just day after day month after year month after month year after year decade after decade But even lifetime after lifetime We are at our core eternal spiritual beings But lifetime after lifetime we keep chasing for pleasure And it amuses us So in the Human form of life, which we all have We all we all have impulses, but we also have intelligence And with the intelligence we are meant to restrain our impulses Last year I was in Cambridge I was invited there for a talk on science and spirituality And while I was coming back I passed by the tree Where Newton is said to have seen the fruit falling And his seeing the fruit falling it has seen that incident from which he inferred of the law of gravity that is considered to be the beginning point of modern science And it's Newton's brilliance that simply from a fruit falling He could infer the law of gravity But still if you consider this incident at a deeper level Imagine if instead of Newton there had been a monkey sitting over there The monkey would just have picked up the fruit eaten it and gone on its way And there might have been human beings sitting over there also Some other human beings might also have eaten the fruit and gone there So Newton Now there's nothing wrong with eating but it's simply an impulse Newton did not focus on the impulse of eating the food. He thought what made this fruit fall So even for progress in science If we simply let ourselves be driven by impulses We cannot make any advancement So Einstein said that the sciences the arts and the religions.
They are all fruits of the same tree of human intelligence So they simply directed in different directions So the human intelligence So what the point I'm making is that we all have emotions and we all seek fulfilment in our emotions But if our emotions alone drive and define us We can never be satisfied whether it is in relationships Whether it is in possessions or even when it is in devotion Even if we come to God and if you think of This simply as a sentiment, okay when I feel good when I feel like it I'll go to temple when I feel like it. I'll chant the names of God when I feel like it I'll read read some sacred texts Then that feeling will never allow us to do anything sustainable So we need to go and grow from the level of sentiment to the level of commitment The So again the idea that people say that okay, you know love is something that just naturally happens How can you choose to love someone? How can we develop love for someone? Actually we can Especially when it comes to God Now God the Bhagavad Gita explains. What does God mean? God means Uh that he is the source of everything That he's 10.8 in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says he's the source of everything Everything that exists comes from God And the significance of this is explained in the same chapter towards the end in 10.41 Krishna states that Yad Yad Vibhuti Madh Sattvam Shreemadur Chitameva Vah Tattva Deva Madh Achchattvam Mam Tejvamsha Sambhava So he says that whatever is attractive in this world Its attractiveness comes is a spark of my attractiveness So whatever is attractive in this world Its attractiveness is a spark.
So we see some very beautiful person. We see some very attractive sunrise or sunset We Eat savour some very delicious food Whatever it is that attractive in this world. Its attractiveness is real, but it is little attractive.
It's like a spark And that spark is coming from Krishna who is the whole So when we are attracted to the sparks Like say it's very cold And I get a spark of fire. Now, how much of the spark how much can the spark give me warmth? Very little actually But if I go to the whole fire Then that is where I can get warmth and comfort so similarly When we are attracted to the things of the world, we get some pleasure, but it is limited If instead we think that okay if this thing is so attractive Then and this is just a spark of God's all attractiveness How much more attractive would God be? and when we strive to cultivate attraction towards God Then by that our longing for love our longing for beauty our longing for joy That will be fulfilled when we direct our love towards God So the going back to the metaphor of the elephant and the rider Now the right if the elephant takes control The elephant will go wherever it wants the rider understands Okay, I have to go here Then the rider uses the gourd And then restrains the elephant and make sure that the elephant goes in the right direction So like that we are the riders And the gourd is our intelligence This is the intelligence that we get by the study of scripture When we come in the association of devotees study the bhagavad-gita study the bhagavatam we understand What really matters in life What is it that is going to fully truly fulfil our longing for happiness? And based on that intelligence, it will become like the gourd Our emotions may still run wild But we will be able to rein them in The elephant will still have a tendency to go here and there but the gourd Checks the elephant and does course correction for the elephant So like that And now the elephant Is not To be paralysed the elephant is not to be killed The elephant is simply to be directed properly So similarly it is not that our emotions are to be denied suppressed or rejected It is that simply our emotions need to be directed properly Our emotions need to be directed in a way that brings out the best within us Not the worst within us Often if our emotions are under strain then sometimes We all get angry And then we speak such things in anger And the other person say just had their mobile recorder on and they recorded what we spoke And then afterwards somebody showed you this is what you say. I spoke this.
How could I speak this? I would I never intended to speak such a thing So sometimes our emotions if they're under strain they bring the worst out of us and that's why we need to Discipline our emotions, but disciplining emotions doesn't mean suppressing emotions. It simply means Directing those emotions properly and that is where the process of bhakti yoga comes in the process of bhakti yoga Which involves chanting the holy names taking darshan of the deities studying the scriptures This is a process that purifies and directs our emotions The emotions that are running wild they become focused they become directed by the practise of bhakti Millions of people all over the world have experienced this transformational power of devotion that if you start practising bhakti The whatever emotions which are going wild will start calming down whether it is anger whether it is greed Whether it is lust whether it is selfishness whether it is depression or whether it is Self-obsession pride whatever it is Now whichever emotions are taking us in undesirable directions Those emotions will calm down those emotions will decrease It is not that we will become emotionless rather Our better emotions will come out in the ramayan when Ram is exiled to the forest At that time lakshman is furious at the injustice And then when ram and lakshman are living in the forest at that time their younger brother bharat comes And he has come with the desire to have To have ram and lakshman come back ram come back and take the kingdom But and he thinks i'm the younger brother. So ram may not listen to me.
So he gets the whole army He gets the courtiers. He gets the ministers. He gets the sages He gets the elders of the city and they all come in a huge procession and when At the panda when ram and lakshman in the forest they suddenly hear the sound of a a big army coming This is an army is coming.
The horses are there. They're trampling on the undergrowth the branches the twigs. They hear it And lakshman climbs on top of a tree and sees It is bharat coming And he's coming with the army Bharat immediately jumps to inferences This wicked sorry lakshman sees this and lakshman jumps to inferences This cruel bharat wicked bharat, you know, first of all, he had you exiled through his mother and now He has come He's not even satisfied by sending you to the forest.
Now. He has come with the whole army to kill you But he doesn't know That I stand between him and you And he says today by my arrows he and whoever sides on him, you think they will all die Now when ram hears this ram says lakshman, why are you getting so angry? He says Bharat's love for me Is no lesser than your love for me. I'm sure bharat has come here To ask me to come back to the kingdom is it That somehow bharat has offended you in some way.
That's why you're taking out your anger on him or is it That In a rush of emotion you agreed to come with me to the forest But now when you are seeing the austerity of forest life You are regretting your decision of accompanying me If that is the case Then I will ask bharat to stay here and you can go and become the king Now when lakshman hears this he becomes totally deflated And then when he sees bharat comes along and bharat is so selflessly humbly desperately beseeching Ram, please come back Please come back Many times in a father when a patriarch in a family a very wealthy family passes away Among the children there is a succession conflict Succession battle. I want the property. I want the property.
So here also there's a succession conflict between ram and bharat But it is a unique succession conflict. It is both of them are saying you take the kingdom You take the kingdom And finally Ram, bharat says please give your slippers. They will be the rulers Today if one brother gave his slippers to the other brother The other brother will probably take it and beat his brother with it So what happens is That when bharat goes back with ram's slippers, he says I am your servant You will rule with your slippers on the throne At that time lakshman is so touched And then afterwards ram and lakshman are sitting and talking And then lakshman asks Ram, you know, why do I get angry so quickly? His younger brother.
Why do you get angry so quickly? So ram just touches him on his shoulder and he says No, you are sentimental Now lakshman asks are sentiments bad? So ram says sentiments are not bad sentiments are the ornament of life But he said we need to choose those sentiments That take us toward dharma And we need to reject those sentiments that take us away from dharma So emotions are necessary But it's not that every emotion that comes from within us is desirable We have to select the emotions that take us up And reject the emotions that push us down In that way we grow Like one of my services is writing So when we write I can just write something a full article. I can write in 15 minutes But if I just express whatever is there in my minds That will not be the best There will be some version of me which will be very unflattering For me as a writer But then after I express what do I do? I process, I edit, I refine and then Something which is worthy of getting published comes out So this is something which applies in every artistic field It is not that a person who is a musical performer first time In their life, they pick up a violin and they go on stage and start performing Some sound will come out But that will probably be the worst performance, not their best performance So just as in every artistic field we understand that the first expression is rarely the best expression And we edit, we refine Same way with our emotions. It is not that the first emotions that come to us are the best emotions We need to edit.
We need to purify our emotions So when we practise bhakti as a commitment That means, commitment means Okay I will chant the holy names of Krishna irrespective of whether I feel like it or not. If I feel like it Yes, that is the emotion that is taking me closer to Krishna. Very good I'll ride on that emotion and practise bhakti enthusiastically But sometimes I may just not feel like chanting.
I may not feel like coming to the temple But then that is an emotion which is taking me away from dharma That is taking me away from God. That is taking me away from virtue Then I will resist that emotion And commitment means no matter how we feel we still do that activity So when we start practising bhakti as a commitment We show Krishna that we are serious about our relationship with him Now every relationship It requires the seriousness of the relationship is seen by the commitment Now when a mother has a small baby It's newborn the newborn Wakes up at any time starts crying at any time Now normally many times when we sleep at night, we may set an alarm And we ourselves choose the time at which we set the alarm And yet when the alarm rings We often put it closer to the back just snooze it at least But even a small baby Is like an alarm that goes off at any time And even when that happens, what does the mother do mother doesn't shut it off Mother doesn't do that never Why? Because there is commitment Mother may not feel like waking up in the morning But when the baby is waking up at night and crying the mother will wake up and fondle comfort the baby So commitment means even when we don't feel like doing something still we do it So same way in our practise of bhakti when we connect with God When we are committed, that means whether I feel like it or I don't feel like it still I will do it I'll chant the holy names. I'll study scripture and come to a temple and by this The relationship deepens The relationship not only deepens it also sweetens How does it sweeten? because Krishna is all attractive He is supremely attractive But in our present stage We do not taste his attractiveness Because our consciousness gets distracted to other things Say there's a Say after this programme there is some sweet juice dessert is there And we are drinking it as we are drinking it.
It's a delicious drink But as we are putting it to our mouth suddenly Somebody comes and pushes our neck away What will happen? It is delicious, but it is all pouring down. It's not going into our throat. We can't taste it If that drink comes in our mouth and goes in we will be able to taste it But when if our mouth is turned away, we can't taste it so same way Krishna and remembrance of Krishna are supremely relishable So A great bhakti saint Kula Shekhar Malar says he was here.
He was earlier a great king a powerful king who enjoyed all royal delights And he's saying now that I've become a devotee of Krishna. I can tell you That there is no happiness in the world I don't know any happiness that compares to the happiness of loving remembrance of Krishna I don't know any other pleasure But then he also says that how is this happiness tasted? it is Pibhamana Shri Krishna Divya Aushadham This is tasted through the mind The sweetness of Krishna is accessed through the mind that remembers Krishna But when our mind is distracted So we may come in front of the temple we may be beholding Krishna we may participate in Krishna's kirtan But if our mind is going here going there Then it is like we're drinking. We are having a sweet to drink A sweet drink, but the mouth is pushed away so at our stage To the extent we are controlled by our emotions by our sentiments mundane sentiments to that extent Our consciousness our mind gets distracted here and there and we can't taste the sweetness of Krishna But if we keep practising bhakti That means no matter how I feel We still keep striving to connect with Krishna That connection purifies us The purification is not an abstract concept Purification simply means earlier I said that there are emotions that bring out the best within us that take us towards dharma And there are emotions that bring out the worst within us Which take us towards adharma.
So purification simply means That the emotions that bring out the worst within us they become weaker They become weaker And purification means that the emotions that bring out the best within us They become stronger So, if we just keep practising bhakti irrespective of how we feel, then the unhealthy emotions they start going down and the healthy emotions they start rising, they start becoming stronger. And when these healthy emotions become stronger, then when we are practising bhakti, we can connect with Krishna. When we connect with Krishna, it's like the drink is in front of us and we are savouring the drink.
When we savour the drink, then we experience, yes, there is such deep, sublime fulfilment available over here that we will not chase after worldly things after that. It is not that we will not do our worldly responsibilities, it is that we will not be infatuated by worldly things. So the process of bhakti actually gives us the ultimate attainment.
The attainment is that our longing for happiness, our longing for love, our longing for peace, this is fulfilled when our consciousness becomes connected with Krishna. Just like say outside it is very cold, if we go out, we will start trembling. But as soon as we come in a room where the temperature is regulated, where there is heating arrangement, then we start feeling comfortable.
Similarly, in this world, this world is a place where there is anxiety. But if our mind is just caught in the things of this world, this happened here, that happened there, that happened there, we will just stay agitated. We will just stay agitated.
It's like we are outside in the cold, we naturally feel cold. But the moment we get our thoughts towards Krishna, it is like coming inside a room where there is warmth, there is cosiness, there is comfort. Immediately we can experience relief.
And the more we become habituated to practise bhakti, the more that good feeling, that peaceful feeling, that joyful feeling will become our constant feeling. And when we are equipped by that sense of security and serenity within ourselves, then whatever challenges we have to face in life, we can go through them maturely, confidently and successfully. And the ultimate success of our life is that at the end of our life, we become reunited with our Lord.
We attain his abode for a life of eternal love and joy. This is the attainment that comes when you practise bhakti, not just as a sentiment, but as a commitment. So I'll summarise and then we can have some questions.
I spoke about how bhakti is not just a sentiment, but it is also a commitment. And it is a commitment that leads to the ultimate attainment. So talk about sentiment, we all are driven by our sentiments.
In fact, defined by our emotions, by our sentiments. But often our sentiments make us do unworthy things. So I talked about relationships.
A relationship may start with a sentiment. There may be love at its first sight. But whether there will be a loving relationship is stable and enduring, that depends not just on what happens at first sight, but what happens after many sights.
That means that there has to be commitment in the relationship. Without commitment, even the best start for the relationship will not be sustainable. Same people who say initially, I can't live without you.
Afterwards they say, I can't live with you. So romance has a bench life of around a year. So initially there may be a hormonal attraction maybe there.
But then there has to be a more sustained basis for that attraction. So if you are driven by emotions alone, we can't even have satisfying material relationships with others. What to speak of a spiritual relationship with God.
The sentiments in today's culture, we are actually goaded. We are dragged here and there by our emotions. We are told, buy this product, wear this, get this and you will enjoy life.
We get a little pleasure, but it is short lived. Fashion is a form of ugliness. That is a form of beauty initially becomes a form of ugliness when everybody starts having it.
We will have to change it. So like that we just keep chasing one thing after another after another. And happiness always wins us.
The problem is not that the object out there is not satisfactory. The problem is that the mind has got the habit of being dissatisfied. And then we will never be satisfied.
That's why we need purification. I discussed that our mind is like an elephant. And we are like the rider on that elephant.
If we don't have a goad, then we will be taken for a dangerous ride. The goad is our intelligence. Our God given intelligence is enhanced by the words of God.
Such as the Bhagavad Gita. And then I talked about when we want, we say love is not just something that happens. Love is also something that is cultivated.
So it is a commitment. When we say Krishna, he is not just a historical figure or an image, an altar. He is the source of everything.
That means he is the source also of everything that is attractive in this world. The attractive things of this world, they can give us warmth like a spark. But Krishna is like the whole flame.
He can give us far greater warmth. So whatever is attractive in this world, whatever pleasure it provides us, Krishna can provide us millions of times more pleasure. If we connect with him through devotion.
So by understanding with our intelligence that our longing for love, for joy, for peace will be fulfilled when we direct it towards Krishna. We need to consciously direct our devotion towards Krishna. That means we practise the process of Bhakti.
Bhakti Yoga involves chanting, studying scripture, associating with devotees, worshipping the deities. All this helps us to develop our higher emotions. And weaken our lower emotions.
That is what purification is. Just like the elephant is not to be crushed or killed. It is to be directed.
Our emotions are not to be given up. But they are to be directed. We talk about the story of Ram, Lakshman and Bharat.
Ram tells Lakshman, emotions are the ornaments of life. But we need to choose the emotions that bring out our best, that take us towards Dharma. Not the emotions that bring out our worst, that take us away from Dharma.
And in this process, as we keep practising Bhakti, as a commitment. Commitment means whether I feel like it or not, I do it. Just like a mother wakes up at night to take care of the baby, whether she feels like it or not.
By acting using our intelligence, what will happen is, we will become purified. As our higher emotions become stronger, then we will be able to steadily connect with Krishna. And just like a child, or just like a person who is drinking a sweet drink, but their face is twisted away, and they can't taste it.
Like that, when our emotions are running wild, we can't taste the sweetness of Bhakti. Because our mind is directed elsewhere. But as we become purified, then our mind stays focused on Krishna.
And then we can relish more and more, the attractiveness, the supreme sweetness of Krishna. And when our mind is sheltered in Krishna, then it is like, say outside there is cold, but there is comforting warmth inside the room. Like that in the world there will be agitation, but if our mind is fixed on Krishna, we will be sheltered.
With that internal security and serenity, no matter what life throws at us, we can face it confidently and successfully. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
So how can we practise devotional service competently in today's competitive work environment? See competition, again, is not bad. It is, everything in this world can be in the three modes. The modes are basically ways of thinking and acting.
There is a mode of goodness, the mode of passion and the mode of ignorance. So competition can also be in these three modes. So for example, what do you mean? Competition in the mode of ignorance is destructive competition.
Destructive competition means, you know, I succeed by pulling the other person down to a level lower than me. That means, say, there is a sports match going on. It is not that I try to play a better game.
I try to maybe, you know, do food poisoning to my competitor. So that he can't play and then I get the match. So it is where we focus on pulling down the other person.
That is competition that is destructive. But competition that is constructive is where we see the presence of others as impetus for bringing out our best, for doing the best that we can. So we see the Bhagavad Gita was spoken to Arjuna and Arjuna was a champion archer at that time.
So his motivation was not simply to… His motivation was to serve Krishna. So he had been given the archery talent and in order to serve Krishna with that archery talent, he developed that talent and he excelled in that talent. So if our motive when we are competing is not to push down other people, our motive is to do justice to the talent that God has given us so that we can make a contribution in His service.
Even in our job, it's ultimately if we are using, if our life is directed towards service of Krishna, then even our job is a part of our service to Krishna. So there if we have that attitude that I am serving Krishna, naturally we want to serve the best that we can. So with that attitude, competition can become a spur for us to bring out our best.
And more importantly, if you focus on this that I want to offer my best to Krishna, then we can avoid the insecurity that comes because of competition. Because when the competition is externally direct, when our competitive mentality is externally directed, then we are always seeking, thinking, am I better than this person or not? But some people might just be better than us. Then we get inferiority complex.
Or if we are better than other people, then we get a superiority complex. Either way, we complicate our lives. But if we focus that I have been given some gifts, let me try to make the best of what I can be in the service of God.
Then we know that we do our best and God will take care of the rest. Because our spiritual and self-understanding helps us understand that, you know, that we just have to become the best that we can be. We don't have to become better than someone else.
You know, if God had wanted us to be someone else, he would have made someone else. If God had wanted us to be someone else, he would have made someone else. He has made you you, he has made me me.
So he wants you to be the best you and me to be the best me. So if we see our activity as a service to God, naturally we want to offer the best service. So we work hard and we use the competition as a spur to bring out our best.
But we won't define ourselves by whether I am better than others or worse than others. We will define ourselves by whether I am the best that I can be in the service of God. It is what we are is God's gift to us.
What we become is our gift to God. What we become is our gift to God. If we have that devotional attitude in whatever we are doing, then we can use competition as a spur to bring out our best without being insecure about whether I am better than others or not.
Does it answer your question? While serving the Lord, how can we know whether the Lord is pleased with us or not? First thing is we should never try to mind read Krishna. If we try to mind read Krishna, we will go in a zone of big speculation and unnecessary insecurity. We should know that Krishna is a loving God.
And if we are doing our best, according to our situation, in our capacity, Krishna is pleased with us. In fact, even when we are doing nothing, still Krishna stays in our heart. Still Krishna's desires are well being.
So Krishna, if we are trying our best, he will always be pleased with us. So rather than worrying too much about whether Krishna is pleased with me or not, we can focus on whether I am doing my best or not. That's the first thing.
Second thing is Krishna is manifest for us in this world through his devotees. So if we have our spiritual guides and we associate with them, seek their guidance, we inform them what we are doing and if they are satisfied, they are happy with us, we should know that Krishna is also happy with us. A spiritual guide, yasya prasadat bhagavad prasad.
Through the spiritual master's mercy, we get Krishna's mercy. So now we cannot obviously please all devotees, but especially those devotees who are guiding us in our spiritual life, we should try to please them. That's the second thing.
The third thing is that if we keep practising bhakti steadily, Krishna is pleased with us and the result of that pleasure is that we experience inner contentment. Bhakti, pareshaanubhava, viraktir anyatra chila. When there is bhakti, that bhakti gives us para isha anubhava.
Anubhava is experience, isha is God, para is one who is transcendental. That God who cannot be experienced with our normal senses, he is experienced through bhakti and the experience of God is so enriching that viraktir anyatra chila. And we don't chase after other things after that once we experience God.
So the later test of whether we are pleasing Krishna is whether we are internally contented. Just like if we are eating food, nobody has to tell us whether we are getting energy or not. Just by eating food we get energy.
So like that when we are serving Krishna, we are wholeheartedly trying to do our best to please him, he becomes pleased. And the way we know that he is pleased with us is that we experience contentment with him. We experience enrichment with him.
And our craving for things unconnected with God goes down. That's how we can understand that our service is pleasing Krishna. Any other questions? Thank you for the wonderful lecture.
I have another question. I am trying to understand. I am just going to read the excerpt from Gautam's proposal, where he says the contaminated modes of material nature expand to the heart.
Therefore, according to the position of the heart in contact with a particular mode of material nature, one's trait is established. Now my question is, you spoke about the modes, you spoke elaborately about emotions in your lecture. So heart and… Radha Kalachand ji… So the question is, is heart similar or the same to emotions? And what are emotions? And what are their basis? Are they based on… So what exactly is the heart and how is it related to the emotions? And where do the emotions actually come from? Do they come from the heart or do they come from the subtle body? Yeah.
See, let's take one thing at a time. The word heart is a metaphorical reference. It doesn't refer to the biological heart.
Somebody says, you broke my heart. Not talking about the heart has been broken physically. It refers to the seat of emotions where we feel shattered.
So now we understand that the seat, the source of emotions is the same as the source of consciousness. That is the soul. So in philosophical terms, what we call as heart is the same as the soul.
In normal metaphorical usage, we may use the word heart, but the heart and the soul are the same. So now the soul is the source of consciousness. The soul is the source of emotions.
Everything comes from the soul. At the same time, in the conditioned stage, the soul is often controlled by emotions other than its original emotions. I'll give an example for this.
Say, I come on a computer. And I have come here to the computer, maybe to check my emails. Or I want to search one thing on a computer.
And I go on Google and search it. But then suddenly below some sponsored ad comes up. And that ad comes in a pop-up window.
And if I am not discerning, I click on that. And I go somewhere else. And from there I go somewhere else.
And I go somewhere else. So the computer was meant to help me search what I want to search. But that same computer can give me some other options and it can take me somewhere else.
Now if I have gone to some other site where I didn't intend to go, where did that all come from? Did it come from the computer or did it come from me? It's both. The idea came from the computer. The suggestion came from the computer.
But it was I who accepted the idea. If I had not been present, even if the pop-up window had come up, the pop-up window would not lead to the link. So I am definitely involved over there.
So like that, we are like the computer user. And the mind is like the computer. So we need the mind to do various things in life.
Because the mind is the channel through which our consciousness comes to this body and to the physical world. So we may decide to do something. So for example, we may go to a place to eat something.
Say somebody is dieting and they decide I want to eat some simple salad. So they go there to eat the salad. But then they see some hamburger or whatever, some very fatty, oily kind of food over there.
Hey, why don't you take that? That proposition comes and what happens? Oh, if you are not careful, just take it and start eating it. And while you are eating it, hey, why did you eat this? I plan not to eat this. So what made me do that? Actually, the suggestion came from without.
But it was we who accepted the suggestion. If we are not discerning, then we accept the suggestion without understanding what we are doing. So to put this in philosophical terms now, the soul is always the source of consciousness, emotions, desires.
But sometimes the soul acts unthinkingly. So sometimes say, that means the emotions that we experience presently, they can come from three sources. They can come from the body and the external world.
They can come from the mind and they can come from the soul proper. The soul proper, the emotions coming from the soul proper are pure spiritual emotions. They are emotions of devotion towards Krishna, service towards Krishna.
We do experience them occasionally and even now, but they are not very regular because the soul is very caught with the mind and the body. So sometimes the emotions that we experience, they are stimulated by external objects. Say, I see some food item and I want it.
The emotion that comes up, it is the soul is choosing. But still the source of that is at one level, the external object, external world, whatever the senses, the body and outer world. Third possibility is that sometimes the emotion of the desire comes from our past recollection.
There is some impression is there in the mind and suddenly the memory comes up. There is no external stimulus at that time. So then the emotion may also come up and that may make us do certain things.
So the important thing is that rather than worrying too much where the emotion is coming from, we focus on where the emotion is taking us. So whenever we get a particular feeling, is this going to take me towards a healthy direction or is it going to take me towards unhealthy direction? We think that way, then we can select our emotions properly. So the emotions are, the soul is not always the originator of the emotions.
The soul is always the chooser of the emotion. In the pure state, the soul is the originator and the chooser. The spiritual emotions come up.
Right now the originator of the emotions can be the external world or it can be the mind. But we are always the choosers. And as we become more and more spiritually awake, then we become more intelligent choosers.
Otherwise in the conditional state we remain unintelligent choosers. So emotions may pop up, but if those emotions are not healthy, we will deselect. We will focus on cultivating purer emotions.
Does that answer your question? Thank you. Hare Krishna. So thank you very much.