Devotion doesn’t restrict us – it empowers us
Something about the cultural, intellectual and spiritual. Remember that? I talked about cultural bhakti. Thank you.
Then I talked about intellectual bhakti or philosophical bhakti and then spiritual bhakti. So I'll speak about the principle of how we as, we all get, we all come from particular backgrounds. That is not just, say, some of you may be born in devotee families or some of you may have been introduced by your devotee parents to bhakti.
So when that happens, we get introduced to the cultural before the philosophical. For me, my introduction was first philosophical and then the cultural aspects came up. The cultural aspects often means, you know, do this, don't do this, this is right, this is wrong.
Philosophical involves understanding what is what and why it is so. So the, when the philosophical comes before the cultural, then if somebody is convinced about the philosophy, then the intelligence supports the practise. But if the cultural comes before the philosophical, that means we're told do this, do this.
And most of the times when we're children, we're told by our parents, do this, don't do this. And they give us some understanding. But we are also small at the time, we don't understand.
And then we observe quite a bit. And then the intelligence often raises questions. For those of us who were introduced later to Krishna Bhakti, it is because our intelligence questions were answered, that's why we started practising bhakti.
Whereas for those of you who were introduced earlier, it is often start the practise and then later the intelligence raises questions. And then if those questions are not answered, then the practise can seem like a burden. Not only can it seem like a burden, it can seem like repressive or regressive.
It can seem in some ways a deprivation, an imposition. Some things which we are told to do, they can seem like an imposition, like many of you felt chanting is an imposition. It's difficult to do.
Some things can feel like a deprivation. Why can't I do these things? So, the first thing to understand is that rules don't always restrict us. Rules can also set us free.
Suppose there's a cricket match going on. And it's the last ball. The bowler has to get a wicket.
The batsman just gets one run, he'll lose. So, the bowler comes running, running, running, running. And the bowler doesn't stop at the umpire's end.
Comes running right up to the batsman, pushes the batsman away and knocks the stump down. He's out now. What will happen? Umpire will say, you get out.
The batsman is not out. Or say the batsman has to just hit one run and the batsman hits the ball. But the ball skies up.
And the wicket keeper is coming to catch it. And the batsman goes with his bat and hits the wicket keeper. And drops the catch.
So, that will not work. So, even in something which is meant purely for enjoyment, like sports, like cricket, there are rules. And if those rules are not followed, then cricket will no longer be enjoyable.
So, there are rules that restrict and there are rules that release. There are rules that restrict and there are rules that release. That means that some rules, no doubt, they restrict us in what we want to do.
But there are other rules that release us. Release us means that they actually enable us to focus on important things. These rules, for example, a batsman's skill in batting, a bowler's skill in bowling, that gets exhibited when everybody follows proper rules.
So, the rules are meant to act as channels for the release of the talent of the players. And by this understanding, the rules that release are different from the rules that restrict. At one level, all rules restrict in some ways.
But the rules that restrict also release. Some rules, not all rules. I am currently writing a book on addiction.
So, I read about, I am writing about addiction and spirituality. So, I read about one alcoholic's story. I was reading about how people became addicted or how people became free from addiction.
So, this alcoholic, young man, he was in America itself, he was sleeping at night. And early, it was a cold night in the northern part of America and around 4 a.m. in the morning, he woke up with a strong urge to drink. He got up and went to his fringe.
He didn't find anything to drink over there. So, he got out into his car and drove across to a nearby bar. Now, he came out of the car and then it struck him.
It's freezing cold and he had forgotten to wear any warm clothes because he was so caught by the frantic desire to drink. He went into the bar and the particular brand of alcohol he wanted was not there. So, now he had to go to another bar which was almost halfway across the town.
So, he went back and got into the car and went all the way. Finally, he got there. As soon as he came out of the car, he was shivering.
He went into the bar, ordered that particular brand which was there. He got it. He opened the bottle and drank it.
He said, no, I have worked so hard to get this now. I will savour this. So, he put the lid back and started going back to his car.
And as he was going back to his car, it had started snowing at night. And he slipped on the snow. And he fell down.
And he had forgotten to put the lid fully on the bottle. So, that whole bottle has spilled on him. And then he was lying, bathed in alcohol, on the floor, with his back on the road which is covered with snow.
Freezing cold. He looked up and saw all around, tall buildings, houses very dark. He was thinking, what am I doing? He said, what am I doing? I could be sleeping comfortably in bed.
Here I am, freezing in the cold, bathed in alcohol, with my whole body on the snow. At that time, it struck him, I am bound. I am not free.
I am bound. So, bondage can be of different types. There can be physical bondage which prevents us from moving.
Sometimes in the past, there were slaves who would be dragged by ropes. There is physical bondage. But there is also psychological bondage.
There is bondage at the level of desires. In the Bhagavad Gita, 16th chapter, Krishna tells, आशा पाश शतेईर बद्धाः काम क्रोध परायणः आशा पाश, desire becomes like a shackle which binds us. And शतेईर बद्धाः, hundreds, thousands of desires, we are bound.
काम क्रोध परायणः People are captivated by काम and क्रोध, by desire and by anger. And when they are captivated in this way, they just can't do anything. So in such a situation, when they are bound, they just get dragged here, there and everywhere.
So many of the things that seem to be like freedom, they often lead to bondage. When somebody starts drinking, have any of you heard of Oscar Wilde? Oscar Wilde is a British author. And he said that giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world.
I have done it hundreds of times, over a hundred times. What does that mean? No, I've given it up a hundred times. I gave it up and, yeah, he gave it up, but it didn't give him up.
So what happens here is that many of the things that we think are freeing, they often end up binding us. In the Ramayana, there is a story of a particular character who is good but is known to be short-tempered. Who is that? Ramayana.
Who is good, but he is known to be short-tempered. Lakshman. Lakshman was impulsive.
Ram was calm, so Lakshman was impulsive. Sorry? Yeah, so he was impulsive. So now, at one time when Ram and Lakshman and Sita are living in the forest, outside of Ayodhya, they are living on Chitrakuta, Dhriniketa and Rama.
They are living on Chitrakuta mountain and at that time Bharat comes. And Bharat wants to persuade Ram to come back and take the kingdom. And because he is a younger brother, he knows my older brother will not listen to me.
So, in order to boost his influence, he gets many, many citizens. He gets the ministers and he gets his whole army practically. So seeing them, Lakshman becomes suspicious.
Why has he brought him here? Why has he brought the whole army? And he thinks that Bharat has brought the army to kill Ram. He says, I will kill Bharat today. But Ram says, cool down.
Bharat loves me as much as you love me. So then they move, then they wait. And then when Bharat begs Ram, please take the kingdom.
And finally Bharat goes with Ram's sandals on his head. Lakshman is very terribly remorseful. And Lakshman says that it is after they have gone, Lakshman initially itself is chastised slightly by Ram.
But here then he asks Ram, why do I get angry so quickly? So Ram pats him on the shoulder and says, you are sentimental. So Lakshman becomes a little confused and Lakshman asks, are sentiments bad? Are emotions bad? So Ram replies, no, emotions are not bad. He says, they are very good.
But they are the ornaments of life. They make life worth living. And he says, we have to choose those emotions that lift us up and avoid those emotions that pull us down.
That means that, say, if I desire to do something, if somebody desires to drink, now nobody desires to become alcoholic when they start drinking. But what happens? It feels good at that time. And they start it once, twice, thrice.
And it keeps growing. And they get bound. So we all want to feel good.
But there are some good feelings which drag us down. There are some good feelings which can help us rise up. So like all of you said, you like kirtans, you like prasadam.
It feels good. But it lifts us up. So now how do we decide which feeling lifts us up and which feeling pulls us down? That is to be decided through one's intelligence.
So especially in teenage years, two things start happening. First thing is that our intelligence develops. We can start thinking for ourselves.
Along with that, our desire also becomes stronger. So I want this, I want that. If the desires become inordinately strong, then the intelligence gets overpowered by the desires.
Can you? So when the desires overpower the intelligence, then one can get into a lot of trouble. Because the desires are often blind. Desires are not bad, but desires are often blind.
And when the desires which are blind, they catch us, they overpower us at that time. So to overcome these blinding desires, we need something more. We need to have a sharp intelligence.
So there are certain default settings in life. I won't talk long. We can have some question answers towards the end.
I'll give two, I'll make two main points more. And then I'll stop. I'll talk about two points.
One is about default settings in life and learning to optimise our choices. See default settings means, suppose you want to send a message to someone. And on the phone, each time you send a message, the phone starts asking, what font should I use? What font size should I use? What background colour should be there? What theme should be there? If you go into the technicalities, there can be over a dozen settings for simply sending a message.
If you go in a computer, there are 40-50 settings for a simple Word document. But those are often set in default. And those default settings, do they restrict or do they facilitate? What do you think? Depends on the situation.
If our purpose is to make a very artistically crafted message, then it restricts. Then we have to go to the default settings and change. But if our purpose is simply to send a message, then it facilitates.
So similarly in our life, there are certain default settings, which actually they help us to get on with the business of life. If those default settings are not there, if every single thing is to be chosen, then people just get overwhelmed. There can be sometimes we feel if I have choices, then that brings me freedom.
But sometimes too many choices can also actually restrict freedom. So that means here there is an American psychologist Barry Schwartz. He has talked about something called the paradox of choice.
That means if there is too much to choose, it burdens us. So he talked about two kinds of people. There are optimisers and there are maximisers.
Have you heard of these two categories? Anyone else? Suppose I have to purchase a new cell phone. Now I decide I want to get the best deal for my money. And I start searching the whole market.
What are the cell phones available? What offers the best features? What offers the best value for my money? Now there are so many cell phones, so many features. Now we may spend a whole year just trying to find a cell phone. And those people who want to get the best deal in everything, they are called the maximisers.
And the other category of people are the optimisers. They decide, yes, I want a new cell phone and I want a good piece, but I have many other things to do in my life. So I'll spend the next maybe one week.
I'll ask friends, I'll explore myself, and then after that I'll settle. Now in general, the maximisers get better deal for their money than the optimisers. But not just the amount of time.
There are three results. First is that for the maximisers, the sheer scale of expectation that they have got. I spent so much money to get, so much time, so much energy, so much thought to get this product, so they have so much expectation from it that no product can live up to that expectation.
And they just feel disappointed with that product. And if one thing goes wrong in it, then they are almost devastated. So there is over-expectation that results when there is over-endeavour.
And that causes frustration. The second is, even if they have got the best deal, there is always a nagging fear behind. Maybe if I had explored more, I might have got a better deal.
And because of that, they can't enjoy the product they have. And inevitably what happens, sooner or later, a better product comes. All products usually keep having new features.
And as the competition increases in the market, the cost also goes down. So what happens because of this? Eventually when they find that they could have got something better, if they had only waited for some time, then actually that fear becomes a regret. Oh, why did I do it? So in this way, there is over-expectation leading to frustration, there is fear, and then there is regret.
So Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, He says, there is unlimited anxiety that comes when we become overwhelmed by desire. Desires pull us. So there are optimisers and there are maximisers.
In our life, we all have to make choices. So when we are practising spiritual life, we decide to optimise some aspects of our life. Every single thing that we have to choose, if we spend too much time in choosing, that distracts us.
And thus we end up not being able to do, to maximise our abilities, to do the best that we could have done. So the practise of spiritual life is meant to help us to focus our energy. Our energy can get dissipated in 100 directions, and that can often distract us from constructive actions.
But when it is focused, okay, these things don't matter so much. Let me focus on the best, like some of you said that, you said that you like the community. And when you want to make friends, today with social media available, we have so much option to make friends with anyone.
But often those friends are very, whether those friends will be close or not, we don't know. So if we focus our intelligence, our energy on what it is, that is important. Then we'll find that spiritual practises, they will open new doors for us.
Rather than closing some doors, they will open doors for us. The second point I was going to make was about this principle of empowerment. Most of you know the basic outline of the Mahabharata.
So in the Mahabharata, there is a story of one prince or one son of Arjuna who was killed unfairly. Who was that? Abhimanyu. Have you heard about him? Chakravyuha.
And he was trapped over there. And he was trapped because of the name of warrior Jayadratha. He cut off Abhimanyu's assistance from him.
So that night when he was killed, Abhimanyu, Arjuna took a vow that I will, did you know? Arjuna took a vow that he says, tomorrow, before sunset, I will kill Jayadratha. He wanted to avenge the death of Abhimanyu. And at that time, Krishna and Abhimanyu, sorry, Krishna told Arjuna, Arjuna, he said, you took an impulsive vow that you will kill Jayadratha tomorrow.
But tomorrow, the commander of the Kauravas, Drona, will arrange the full army so that he will try to block you. Very difficult for you to reach. So Arjuna replies nonchalantly.
He says, Krishna, I cannot understand your worry. He says, you know my power and I know your power. So I know that your power is… Why are you worried? And next morning, Arjuna starts on his campaign.
And the whole army is there to try to stop him. Arjuna relentlessly moves through the enemy forces, going after one, after another, after another. And finally as sun sets, sun is near setting, at that time, Arjuna is close to Jayadratha.
You can see Jayadratha's chariot's flag. Now I am there. But at that time, Duryodhana arranges for eight warriors to simultaneously attack Arjuna.
Two from the front, two from the sides, and two from the back. And as they all attack him, then what happens by that is, he just can't even move forward. He is countering all the arrows.
It's almost like a cloud of arrows have descended around him. Arjuna is wheeling around on his chariot. Fight, fight, fight, fight.
He is not able to stop. He somehow manages to counter the arrows, but he cannot move onwards. And he looks, and he sees the sun is rapidly moving towards the horizon.
So at that time, Arjuna begins to despair. Krishna sees that his friend is in danger. And Krishna summons his Sudarshan Chakra.
As soon as Sudarshan Chakra appears in his hands, Krishna casts that Chakra into the sky. And it zooms high into the sky, and it reaches the sky, and it covers the sun. And as soon as it covers the sun, there is darkness that descends on the battlefield.
And the Kauravas become jubilant, thinking that all the sun has set, and Arjuna has been foiled. And they start cheering. Jaidrath, who is hiding in fear, comes forward to cheer.
Arjuna, you are going to kill me? Now I will light your funeral pyre. Arjuna is exasperated. He is about to lower his voice.
Krishna tells him, Arjuna, there is still time. There is still time. He says, put a Brahmastra on your bow and shoot Jaidrath.
And he says, when you knock off Jaidrath's head, knock it off in such a way that several miles away, his father, Vrindakshatra, is sitting and doing meditation. So you should make sure that his head falls in Vrindakshatra's lap. So Arjuna does not ask any questions.
He picks up his bow and as he is about to shoot the arrow, Krishna removes the chakra. And the sun is just coming close to the horizon. The last rays are there.
And Krishna tells Arjuna, here is the sun and here is Jaidrath. Shoot now. He shoots.
And right in front of all the warriors who are guarding Jaidrath, the arrow just swoops through the sky, hits Jaidrath on the neck, lops off his neck. His neck flies high into the sky, disappearing from the sight of the warriors. And when he sees this, Vrindakshatra, who has been sitting in meditation, some skull suddenly falls on his lap.
He just knocks off the skull. And what has happened is, Vrindakshatra knew that his son Jaidrath, Vrindakshatra was a relatively virtuous person. Jaidrath was a vicious person.
But Vrindakshatra was very attached to his son. And so he had sought some blessing from some devatas that if anybody causes my son's head to fall on the ground, let that person's head burst apart. So now Krishna knows this blessing.
So what Krishna does is, he makes the head fall on Vrindakshatra's lap. And Vrindakshatra shakes it off and says, what is this bloody head falling on my lap? And he causes Jaidrath's head to fall on the ground. And what happens because of that? By his own blessing that he has sought, his own head explodes.
And in that way, Arjuna is protected. The point of the story is that Arjuna tries his best. He strains throughout the day to reach Jaidrath.
But when he can't, then Krishna is there to help. So, people have heard the saying, God helps those who help themselves. Now what does it mean? That means that we do our best, and when something is beyond our best capacity, then God will help us.
So that's how, when we work in life, some things may seem difficult. Sometimes studies may seem difficult. Sometimes we may do some extrovert activities that may seem difficult.
Sometimes we may be chanting. Chanting may feel difficult. There are different things which may feel difficult at different times.
The important thing is, is to try our best. When we exert to our fullest capacity, what is beyond our capacity is not beyond God's capacity. And he, by his omnipotence, can make that which is difficult also possible for us.
So bhakti is, first I said, bhakti is about accessing God's power by which we can actually do much more than what we would normally be capable of doing. So, I'll summarise what I spoke. I spoke about three main points.
I spoke first about how, when we start practising bhakti, we all, some of us may come from the cultural before the philosophical. Some of us may come philosophical before the cultural. So, when the mind starts raising questions, our intelligence needs to be strong to be able to raise, find answers to those questions.
And I talked about how, in the, in normal life also, when there are rules, rules we can restrict, but rules can also release. So, in cricket, when the rules are followed, then all the players become free to release their talents and perform. So, something which may seem simply like free, but that may end up binding.
Like a person who wants to drink alcohol, I talked about an alcoholic who was lying in snow at night. So, in spiritual life, when we, there are certain choices, don't do this, do this. Those rules may seem like restrictive, but we see them as optimising.
There are important things in our life. All of you have your career ahead of you. All of you have your talents which you would like to develop.
All of you would like to make something constructive, become something good in your life. So, now, there are certain doors which are closed. Rather than seeing those doors as obstructions, you can see that these are positive to optimise.
Let certain default settings be as they are, so that you can get on with the important thing of sending the message. So, with this understanding, when you focus on practising bhakti and doing the best that we can in our life, in our studies, in whatever activities you are doing, then if sometimes our own efforts prove inadequate, then when we do our best, Krishna does the rest. So, even if something seems difficult, just like Arjuna, for him it was almost an impossible task to reach Jayadratha, but Krishna arranged for him to reach.
Similarly, for us also, when we do our best, Krishna will do the rest. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
Do any of you have any questions or comments? So, you said that to understand the philosophical reason behind the cultural aspects, but for most of the cultural aspects, where do we find the philosophical reason? Ask. Ask those devotees. Even among the devotee community, there are different people, not all of them are very intellectual.
Those who are more rational, more intellectual, ask them. So, on my website, the spiritual scientists, I have answered almost 5000 questions. So, many of the cultural aspects are explained over there.
Generally speaking, we may treat bhakti like one unit. Just like when you go to school, if you are going to an English teacher and asking a physics question, don't ask me, go to a physics teacher. So, like that in bhakti also, there are many different aspects.
There are some devotees who may be better equipped to answer questions, others may not be so well equipped. So, we have to find out who can answer our questions and then ask the questions over there. Some devotees may not approve asking questions.
Better don't ask questions to them, ask questions to others. If you have any specific questions, we can discuss also now. So, thank you very much.