Does too much seriousness in spiritual life makes one irresponsible and unambitious

So, there is an overview.

What is the origin of this notion? Spiritual life makes us responsible for our ambitions. Then we discuss about the motive of spirituality. And we discuss spiritual understanding of responsibility.

Then, is there a different kind of ambitiousness? Different kinds we will discuss. Then we will discuss the concept of destiny related to the endeavour and over-endeavour. And then we will discuss practically our life.

The constant problem is a time problem which all of us face. And so what does spiritual practise do to our time? Does it take away our time so that we don't have time to practise spiritual life? Or does it have a contrary effect? So, the idea… So, the general idea is propagated, especially in the independence movement and thereafter, of that how are the best militant rishis in our country? Because they would rule India, which is a large country. Because the notion is that India was too spiritual.

We are too otherworldly. Too bothered about what is going to happen in the next world. We are not at all bothered about this world.

And since then, the notion has been that if India has to progress militarily, we have to become more this-worldly. And to become more this-worldly, we have to stop being so otherworldly. Now, yes, the West can be said to be more this-worldly, more practical-minded.

But what is the nature of the progress that the West is providing? It's unsustainable and unsatisfying. Unsustainable means, externally, ecologically, the model of progress cannot be sustained. And unsatisfying means, internally, it is not satisfying.

I mentioned in the first class itself, some of you might remember, that America is 4.6% of the world's population, but consumes 33% of the world's resources. So, that model of progress, how many countries in the world can emulate that? So, yes, this-worldly model of progress is not sustainable at all. In terms of sustainability, it's not possible.

And what about in terms of satisfaction? Are people truly satisfied? I discussed how America, the single largest drug that is sold is, is antidepressant medicine. So, yes, in the West, people have progressed in a way that is neither sustainable from an ecological point of view, nor satisfying from an ecological point of view. Now, I mentioned you also remember about WWF? Worldwide stupidity.

Remember that? People lost in war, wars, shock. That's what their life is all about. So, on the other hand, now, if people say that India was not progressive, Indians were not ambitious, then who made India the world's wealthiest country? Why did either the Britishers or before that the various Muslim rulers invade India? Because they were so prosperous.

A. N. Prashant wrote that book, The Wonder that was India. And the subtitle of the book, The Wonder that was India, below that, Before the Muslim State. So, Muslims did so much of exploitation because India was so prosperous.

Now, who made India prosperous? Was it excess of spirituality? Actually, in the Vedic culture, nothing talks about other worldly prosperity. Like one of you mentioned, Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha. So, Moksha is the core goal of life.

But Dharma, Artha, Kama, is the way of sustainable prosperity. Sustainable and satisfying prosperity. So, when we do Yajna, and by that we get prosperity, we get prosperity by living in harmony with nature.

And if you look at history, you know, those of you who have studied history, there are many ancient civilisations. Egyptian civilisation, Mesopotamian civilisation, Mayan civilisation, Sumerian civilisation. None of them are even existing now.

Egypt as a country is existing, but Egypt as a country today has nothing to do with the ancient world. India is the only ancient civilisation that is still existing today. What is it made possible that India alone existed, all other civilisations got wiped out? Because India's civilisation was based on religion.

So, when there is Dharma, there is sustainable progress, there is sustainable prosperity. On the other hand, there is no Dharma. The Roman civilisations, all at one time, were so prosperous.

But just within a gap of 200-300 years, there is moral depravity, moral degradation, and some complete devastation. So, India has succeeded, survived and succeeded because of its Dharmic basis. So, the Dharma, we will discuss a little bit more of what it means.

It is not only otherworldly. The otherworldly aspect is there, but there is also a lot of concern about this very culture. Yes, there were a lot of renunciates, but the renunciates did not just tell everybody to renounce the world.

They inspired people to live in harmony with God and nature. And that's not possible. So, Renan, just a fact about the prosperity of India.

When Clyde, he went away from India after the plunder in 1958. His wealth at that time was, at that time was huge. At that time, it was something like 401,000 pounds, which is literally crores of rupees now.

As if the world's most prosperous country was discovered then, people were searching for India. When the British, where Mahatma Gandhi was thinking of leaving India in 1901, at that time, the amount that he had looted was dollars one trillion, pounds one trillion. It would work out to be one trillion dollars in terms of real Dharmic economy.

And where was this wealth coming from? It was not just coming from magic. It was coming from religion. So, it's a complete misconception.

It's not just, again, religious opinion. It's an objective historical fact that India was among the most prosperous countries in the world. So, now, let's come back to this point.

What caused India's downfall? It was not excess of spirituality, but it was misapplication of spirituality. Materialism, Uddhav, and spirituality, that caused the downfall. Everyone of you raised the point that now is it that all the other religions have faults and our religions don't have faults? It's not like that.

No. Spirituality, when it is applied by human beings, human beings are phallic, and they commit mistakes. So, if you look at the history of Christianity, or Islam, or the Vedic culture, historically, there have been lesser and greater issues.

But what we are talking is, philosophically, the revelations in the Vedic literature doesn't have any parallel. We are not saying that historically, this religion is better than that. But philosophically, the Vedic revelations are unparalleled.

Now, historically, there have been many distortions. One of the saddest aspects of Vedic culture was how the many of the Brahmins became fast conscious. You see, the Brahmins are supposed to be the most fast-thinking people.

They are the most intelligent, and they are the most renowned. And seeing that the kings they become submissive to the Brahmins. They see, Oh, this Brahmin is more intelligent than me.

But, as he could have achieved worldly success better than me. But he didn't at all. At least, there must have been some similarity.

And therefore, the normal human tendency is, as soon as one gets power, power makes one very greedy and possessive. Like, nowadays, we have politicians, coordinators, they have one politician within two years, he, in his politics, he has swindled 200,000 crores. Even one politician.

And who knows how much more this has come to light. So, how does this happen? Because, people become very greedy. What makes them greedy? Greedy because they think this life is the only life that I have.

And this time, when I am the minister, I am in power, this is the only time I have to mint money. So, let me grab it. So, even if we want this worldly prosperity, greed can destroy this worldly prosperity.

Greed, you see, the whole recession, why did it start? I wrote a small book on the recession. Recession started because people were greedy. The bankers wanted to make a lot of money, so they gave loans, which were not good, which could not be rendered back.

So, even if we want this worldly prosperity, if there is greed, it will destroy this worldly prosperity also. So, what would happen in the Vedic culture was, the king would have the power and the wealth, but they would see the Brahmins, they are actually more influential than us, but they are more renowned than us. That means, there must be some higher role for the king.

And, by the guidance of the Brahmins, the kings would not succumb to greed. The kings would give charity, the kings would work for social welfare. And, historically, Yuan Tsang and Fahim, these are two Chinese travellers who came to India.

And, when they came to India, they came into India mainly because it is the birthplace of Buddhism and they came as Buddhist children. But they also travelled around India and they have left back reports of how well India was administered. How well India was administered.

Even Al-Baruni, Al-Baruni was a Muslim traveller who came to India. He did not appreciate the Indian spirituality so much, although he appreciated that it had depth. It had a lot of differences from Islam.

But, he appreciated the systematic organisation and the efficiency in taking care of people. Actually, unfortunately, over a period of time, what happened was that the Brahmins were supposed to represent the fixed vision on the ultimate goal of life beyond this world. So, they, the Brahmins, don't tell everybody who renounced their world.

The Brahmins actually tell people that you all have to do the same thing. Historically, Shivaji Maharaj was a great king in Maharashtra and one time he decided that I want to renounce the whole world. He was very close to Param Maharaj who was a great saint and he was attracted to him and said I want to renounce the world and also become a devotee.

He said, Param Maharaj won't do. He said, you have your duty, you do your duty and also be chanting the holy names. He told you to do it.

And he established, according to Swaraj, actually Swami Maharaj's kingdom, eventually as his successors like Keshava, it extended all the way from Katak in the east to Katak in the west. Katak is way in Pakistan. So actually Swami Maharaj's and Keshava's kingdom was bigger than even Akbar's kingdom in his heydays.

Now where did this kingdom come about? It was this kingdom. The whole motivation for establishing the kingdom was to spread the life. And unfortunately when the Brahmins become materialistic and they instead of focussing on the other world they start focussing on this world, they become materialistic, the whole society becomes materialistic.

The whole society becomes materialistic, the kings become materialistic. When the kings become materialistic, then the kings become short-sighted. Instead of being united and fighting a common enemy, they make enmity among themselves and the enemy comes and attacks and destroys one by one everywhere.

So Prabhupada used to encounter this when he brought the western disciples to India. One of the western devotees they were born in a western family but they gave everything up. And when they came to India, because they had given up all bad habits, they were wearing rupi-purna or sarees, men and women, completely dedicated their life to the service of mission.

And when they came to Vrindavan, the money of the Vrindavan priests and shopkeepers and other, they were so proud, they have gone to Vrindavan. And when the devotees would go to any of the shops to purchase something, they would say, don't give it to us, put it on the counter, we'll take it, you are untouchable. It is your great devotee dedicated their life to Krishna, they are treating him like untouchable.

So when the devotees came to Prabhupada, Prabhupada just laughed and he said, see, they say that you are untouchable, but your money is not untouchable. They will take your money. So, it is a sad history that when the priests were supposed to protect them, Dharma became materialistic and everything becomes meaningless.

So, India's downfall was because not of too much spirituality, but because of misapplication of spirituality which led to imbalance between religions. And then Dharma and materialisation of Dharma is a sustainable process. When there is no Dharma, there is material life which is unsustainable and it gets destroyed, it gets destroyed.

Now, renunciation, many people in India have the idea that you renounce because you are fed up with life, you couldn't achieve success in life, that's why you are renouncing. So, that is the stereotypical idea and it is also true to some extent that many people take up renunciation because they find it an easier way to earn a living, you don't have to go to a job, you can get some money and enjoy some respect also. But, that sort of renunciation is not happening.

We can repeat this verse in the next chapter. rukham ittieva yatkarma ayatlesh bhayatya jes prakrtva rajasam tyagam naiva tyaga palam lathhe So, Krishna said that if somebody renounces the world, renounces duty, renounces I have come to the world of Mukta, which is so troublesome. And what is so troublesome? Kaya Kalesha Vyasa Chaitanya I have to do so much hard work.

My body demands it. Kaya Kalesha Vyasa Chaitanya It says, Sat-Sat-Kya is in the mode of fashion. What will happen? One will not get any fruit by Sat-Sat-Kya.

What is the fruit? The fruit of renunciation is spiritual advancement, spiritual realisation. If one renounces the world because of frustration, one will not get this spiritual realisation at all. Therefore, this sort of renunciation, when one gets frustrated, that is not renunciation at all.

That is just frustration expressing itself in an apparently religious way. That is not at all. That is just simple frustration.

So, this is the model of spirituality that India has. And surely, India will be India's spirituality is the cause of its suffering. But this is not the real model of spirituality the scriptures talk about.

The scriptures talk about renunciation, they do. But there are two different motives for renunciation. One renunciation is because, I can't get it.

That's why let me do it. So are grapes. So are grapes means, I can't get the grapes because the grapes are sour.

The other motive is, there must be more to life than this. And I want to succeed in life. All of us, to some extent, we have achieved some of our goals in life.

All of you, many of you wanted to come to IIT. You can come to IIT. IIT is one of the top colleges.

If you look at our life, when we achieve the dream that we cherish in our life, when we achieve the dream, initially there will be disappointment. There will be great success. There will be a lot of joy.

After that, life settles down to normal. Everyday we have to wake up. Everyday we have to respond to nature.

Everyday we have to do the same activities. And even if we go to America or wherever we go, the same things are going to happen. So, actually when a person takes to renunciation, it is not because he can't achieve the purpose of his life.

It is because he sees there has to be something more than materialistic. Life must be worth something more than materialistic. Do you think she will be very understanding? I have achieved them.

In such a case, the drive for life, what we can call as ambitiousness, ambitiousness is not lost. In fact, the ambitiousness becomes greater. As Saraswati said, in spiritual life, a person is more ambitious because he sees that there must be something more to life than this.

What I am getting through life, he was more ambitious. George Harrison was one of the world's greatest musicians. Not just greatest musician in terms of spiritual skill, but also in terms of fame.

Now, in 1985, when one satellite was discovered around Jupiter, at that time, by popular demand, that satellite was named George Harrison 8185. So, can you imagine its popularity? It was so popular. And wherever it would go, thousands of people would come after it.

So, he had to turn to a situation and in one of his talks he said, actually, I achieved more fame than what I dreamt of in my life. Than what most people can even dream about. But, I found that to be true.

You know, one of my eminent disciples is Alfred Ford. Alfred Ford is the great grandson of Henry Ford. So, he had come to Mumbai once.

So, we had organised a programme for him, for our top industrialists of Mumbai. And we all came. So, when he had come, because he was an industrialist, we were all of you are going, are trying to walk the road of success.

The road of corporate success. Why should you become famous? Why should you become wealthy, powerful? He said, I have gone to the end of the road. And I am telling you, there is nothing there.

I am telling you, there is nothing there. So, he said that, all the big, big things that I have done, all the big, big miracles that I have done, that has not given me as much satisfaction in life as simple chanting is giving me, you see. So, when I started taking mantra meditation with chanting of Krishna, you see, you see.

So, renunciation, it is often because we understand that life must be having some more potential than what we are told normally. And then, a person not giving up ambition, in fact, is developing a real ambition. And if you look at Prabhupada's life, you know, he can say, ah, that means, he is not doing his work.

Ah, do you remember, which was the census? I think it was the New York Times, which made a rating of the top, ah, top ten people of the world, in different categories. Top ten sportsmen, top ten speakers, top ten writers. So, they made a list of the top ten late start-ups.

Late start-up means, you know, somebody who starts a business or organisation or a career late in his life and then achieves tremendous success. So, in that late start-up list, in the whole 20th century, they pushed Prabhupada's name first. Why? Because from an objective point of view, somebody in the age of 69, in that age of 69 people are afraid to even cross the road all alone.

Prabhupada crossed the ocean all alone. And then, on top of that, you go, somebody goes to America, and he tells Americans, you know, generally, if you want to go and start a business, you have to find out products which people like. And we don't make too strict demands on the products, because too big a price, people won't take.

So, Prabhupada went to America and told Americans, no VTC, no gambling, no intoxication, no illicit sex. One of the devotees told Prabhupada, Prabhupada, if you tell no illicit sex over here, people will say, no Krishna consciousness. Prabhupada said, I have not come here to please Americans.

So, the devotee said, for us, at that time, in the early days, it was like, say, now our devotees are cooking a wonderful feast, every day, every night, if everybody else is feasting, and you are told you have to fast. The rest was like that. Of course, material enjoyment is not like a feast.

It is a miserable thing. But people feel it is a feast. So, Prabhupada, you know, was selling a product in one that is so difficult to sell.

And at the age of 69, he started. And in 11 years, he went around the globe 14 times. He wrote for more than 70 books.

He inspired thousands and thousands of people to a principle of pure and productive life. So, in the idea of spirituality, somebody who just renounces the world and does nothing, Sri Prabhupada is the antithesis of that. Completely antithesis of that.

Sri Prabhupada had more ambition and more drive and energy than what even young people have. So, Sri Prabhupada came to India. In India, the tradition is very devoid.

Please come to our house. They like sadhus to come to their house. Sri Prabhupada could accept invitations.

Sometimes, in one day, he would go to 15-20 such houses. And he would go so fast. And all the other western devotees, they would come.

They were very enthusiastic. They would go to Sri Prabhupada's house. Everybody had their lanterns.

And they would talk. And then you would leave. Most of them were 20-30 years old.

They started coming. And within 2 days, they realised Sri Prabhupada speaks. And eventually, they started having 3 batches.

One group of devotees will go from morning to lunch. Second will go from lunch to evening. And third will go for an evening programme.

So, devotees couldn't sustain Sri Prabhupada's pace. Actually, in traditional life, it is not that one becomes lazy. In devotional life, one becomes motivated by a far higher purpose.

Normally, people are motivated by greed, by lust, by ego. I want to prove how powerful I am, how intelligent I am, how clever I am. And that's what motivates them to hard work.

For a devotee, what motivates him to hard work is some love. Love for Krishna and compassion for all his children. And that's why a devotee can never be lazy.

So, you know, we can say, if there is a small baby, and the baby has to be taken care. Nowadays, mothers have jobs. Sometimes, they put a babysitter to work.

Now, the babysitter, even if we give a handsome salary to the babysitter, can the babysitter take care of the baby like the mother? Why? Because babysitter is motivated by money, mother is motivated by love. So, when the subliminal emotions of the heart are the motivation for our actions, we can work much harder than when the grosser emotions are there. That's why a devotee is motivated by love.

And if he has any work, it's not that he is lazy or inactive. He works, but he works without selfishness. When the babysitter starts crying at night, the baby will not wake up.

Mother, no matter how tired the mother is, sometimes when we have to wake up in the morning, we put an alarm clock. And we put the alarm clock to ring at the time when we want. And even when the alarm clock rings at that particular time, the child will close and go to sleep.

But now for a mother with a newborn child, the baby is like an alarm clock which rings at any time. What did you say? If the alarm clock rings at any time, will any mother shut up? Do you understand what I am saying? Never! Mothers don't sacrifice their life. Even after a day's hard work, why? So, a devotee is motivated by love.

And that is a motivation which will bring out far greater levels of strength and perseverance from within. And it can do far greater good to the world. A devotee may work hard, but when they work hard, they are working for their own exploitation, for their own self-engravement and exploitation of others.

When devotees work harder, that's what they prove of others. Like, we were talking about the food polarised. The food polarised global So, devotees go to war-torn areas where they work hours and hours, late nights and all other times providing food.

I was in Chettinad. The devotee used to go to the kitchen and they would do food relief. So, what happened was, he was in a war-torn area, so a bomb was dropped in the kitchen.

And what happened is, the devotee got completely wounded by the bomb blast. And then the local media took him to the hospital. By that time, he had cooked something like 50,000 meals.

He had to cook something like 4-5 meals. So, so much food was there. They called him up and they asked him, So, what's your plan? How are you feeling? My only regret is that I am not able to cook anymore.

I have to be waiting for my cold breakfast where I can start cooking again. So, I am not good for it. I don't think I can cook today.

So, the devotee goes to the temple. And the devotee does not become irresponsible or optimistic. But actually a devotee… Now, why is he working so hard? Of course, he wants to benefit the other people.

Everybody knows. If he is working so hard and he is Krishna, Krishna is pleased, that brings the greatest happiness to our heart. And that also ensures the spring destination for us.

Therefore, a devotee's renunciation is not because of lack of ambition. It is because of a heart greater ambition. But often the ambition is so great that ordinary people can't comprehend it.

It's like sometimes if you are travelling in a car and a guy comes across the road, and the guy says, Kashi, what do you want? Give me the car. You mean that? How dare you ask me? How dare you ask for a car? So, you know, a devotee is the most audacious beggar. A devotee goes to Krishna and ordinary people say, Please give me some good marks next time.

Please give me some good health. I had gone to Varanasi once. I had gone to one temple of Hanumanji over there.

Then it was written, You are a brahmachari, give me a woman. So, people ask, ordinary people do all materialistic things. Give me bhakti to you.

When we ask Krishna for bhakti, bhakti is the nearest to Krishna. And when we get bhakti to Krishna, Krishna marks it as Sankar. So, when Krishna becomes Sankar, Krishna and the source of all happiness, the devotee totally doesn't have it.

So, it's like the car is very near to this. This is bhakti. It's very near to Krishna.

When you are asking Krishna, that's why devotee is not unambitious. He is supremely ambitious. Something which is of personal value.

But along with personal value, he also does activities which are of immediate substantial value. Now, coming to the question of responsibility. So, responsibility, India has a concept of responsibility, which means that, ok, father and mother should take care of the children, get them educated, get them married, get them settled in life.

Son and daughter should take care of their parents and their old age. Then this is good. This is called as Aparadharma.

Aparadharma means taking care of our body and the body of our loved ones. But Sri Prabhupada explains that this is natural and necessary, but it is not spiritual. Why is it not spiritual? Because if we study nature, we learn a lot about spirituality when we study nature.

Because nature shows us which part of our life is natural and which part of our life is spiritual. There is an extraordinary bird called the beaver bird. What does the beaver bird do? When the sheep bird is about to lay eggs, they search for a hollow in a tree.

After they search for the hollow in the tree, both the beaver bird and the sheep bird start coming, start working to cover the hollow with mud and clay and brambles and leaves and twigs. And then when the hollow becomes small, the sheep bird lays eggs over there. Then they completely cover the hollow so that snakes or other predators cannot steal the eggs.

And then when the time for the eggs to hatch comes, then both the beaver bird and the sheep bird break the hollow, so the sheep bird goes inside. And again the beaver bird closes the hollow from outside. And the mother sheep bird sits on the egg and she paints the hatching hole.

What does the beaver bird do? The beaver bird goes and collects grains and food for the sheep bird and drops it to a small hole in the nest and gives it a taste. And then as the eggs hatch and the birdlets are gone, now more food is needed. More food is needed for the mother as well as for the children.

I have a documentary on this. Then what happens? One time the sheep bird comes and tells his wife to take a job and come out. So they break the nest, both of them come out and then they all start flying.

Both of them start flying and they cover the hole again and they drop grains inside the nest. They drop the grains inside the nest. Inside there are many birdlets.

Some eggs have hatched earlier, so those birdlets are bigger. Other eggs have hatched later, so the birdlets are smaller. Now interestingly, when the food is dropped from outside, the bigger birdlets actually get it first.

But the bigger birdlet don't eat it themselves. They give it to their younger siblings. And then after they are fed, they eat it.

It's totally normal. But is it solution? It's not solution. If you Google, it's not solution.

It's natural. Natural instinct is there. In every species of life, the offspring, when they are born, they cannot grow every species unless the parents take care of it.

So it's a natural instinct created by nature. It's natural, naturally, it's never going to be solution. When it becomes solution, then the soul is born.

So as human beings, you know, what to speak of taking care of our parents or parents taking care of the children. As people have become more and more materialistic in the name of material enjoyment, they don't even do material resources to their children. The best, if you know, when you are 15 or 16, the son leaves home.

And the daughter leaves home. And they are off on their own, they take some job and earn some living. And every once a week they give a call to their parents.

Nowadays in India, people also start celebrating Mother's Day and Father's Day. Actually, Mother's Day and Father's Day is a typical racial concept. Because there, the mother and the father, the children don't even meet them.

So they are living separately, the parents are living separately. So at least once a day in a year, you remember your mother and father. That is the idea.

So, this is the result of the racial-materialist civilisation. So, the point here is that in the Vedic culture, it is understood that one has to do a certain responsibility. But doing one matter of responsibility alone is not enough.

That only makes the spiritual direction at the animal level. Because at the human level, what we have to do is to take care of the souls of our parents. So, Asha has not proved at the end of her class intel about his father.

You can tell the first part. Because we will tell a very heart-wrenching story about his father and how he helped his father in his final days. So, human beings are meant to do not only a part of human, but a part of humans.

And that's what worked out. Indeed, the Vedic culture is not that we neglect the responsibility, but don't be stuck at material responsibility. Do material responsibility, but understand that you also have a higher responsibility.

And sometimes you already have so much responsibility, you are adding to my responsibility. I can't do that. You are getting burdened down, crushed by the responsibility.

Actually, when it becomes spiritual, we become more effective, more efficient. And material responsibility becomes easier to deal with. How does that happen? So, before this, coming back to the point of ambitiousness, you know, the devotional renunciation, in bhakti, everything is about to reject this world, but to return this world to Krishna.

This world belongs not to us, but to Krishna. So, we don't reject this world. Krishna, this is your world, I offer it to you.

So, that's why there are three kinds of transcendentals, three kinds of people. There are bhogis, tyagis, and bhaktas. So, what does bhogi say? This world is mine to enjoy.

I want this, and I want that, and I want everything. And I want for enjoyment. So, the tyagi says, I'm not going to enjoy this world.

Why? Because I can't enjoy it. It doesn't give me any happiness. So, Prabhupada will give the example of somebody who finds a violet lying on the ground.

One person will pick the violet and say, pick up the violet, put it on his hand, He thinks, the resources of this world are mine to enjoy. And that person will go to his house. I don't want to enjoy this world.

I renounce. Actually, imagine if an ordinary person goes to the house of Prabhupada and tells him, I renounce your palace. I go there, he also renounces.

So, the idea of renunciation is purely illusory, because nothing belongs to us. At least we come to this world, live for a few years, and we claim that this is mine, and then, murder like a slave. It's all mine.

At the end, it's nothing. So, actually, the idea of love is based completely on illusion. But a bhakta, his attitude is, everything in this world belongs to Krishna, so let me offer it to him.

And therefore, in bhakti, renunciation is not just one otherworldly activity like chanting. Like, you ask me, bhakti is about service. So, bhakti is a complete culture which includes all the activities of love.

So, we don't need to give up anything in bhakti, we just give up simple activities. Our talents, our abilities, our skills, our resources, it is all Krishna's service. And, in fact, if the people of Vedic culture are lazy, how do they write vast literature? Mahabharata is the world's longest poem.

It's 110,000 verses. It's actually, before the western writers came to India, they had the idea that German sagas, Iliya and Aditi are the longest poems in world literature. But when they came to India, they found that Mahabharata is seven times longer than Iliya and Aditi combined together.

Now, how can lazy people write the long poem? It's not just literature. If you look at the architecture, if you go to South India, you see, look at the temples, you look at the sculptures, you look at the paintings, you look at the music. There is a Vedic singing in the different Radhas.

One of our devotees came to Bengal here to do research on the bhajans which are sung by the Kaurya Vaishnavas. In this last 500 years, and he has discovered already, many have been lost, he has discovered almost 10,000 songs written by devotees in the last 500 years. And this is just, you know, in one part of the country.

It's been lazy people doing it. So, does bhakti make us lazy? Bhakti actually gives a positive direction for all us as well. Those who have the ability to write songs, they are going to write songs anyway.

But they will write songs about some mundane law of air and it will contaminate their mind and it will contaminate other people's mind. But, all our talents, if we don't have Krishna in our life, then our talents drag us down and our talents drag themselves down. Because what is our talents for? For materialistic activities.

Therefore, on the other hand, when we use our talents for Krishna's service, then, we actually give satisfaction to the rest. George Harrison, when he wrote songs about Krishna, he said that I am a boy, I get it. If you sing about Krishna, nothing can compare with that.

Martin Luther King said that, you know, chanting Hare Krishna makes you be visible to this. It is a confidence and power. So, seriously, it's not that easy.

In fact, George Harrison came to Prabhupada and said, Prabhupada, I want to become seriously good. Should I announce the word? You do have to announce the word. Krishna has given you talent.

Use the talent for Krishna's service. And he uses talent also for singing songs about Krishna. So, it's very easy.

In the Krishna tradition, they have a goodwill greeting called Hallelujah. They would have, they would sing some Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna. So, slowly they would bring in Krishna.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna. And really, because of his musical talent, thousands of people all over the world, they introduced Krishna to consciousness. And hundreds of people did it with him.

So, actually when people have talents, it's not that those talents are rejected. If you devote to Krishna's service and devote to Krishna's service, that gives one far greater satisfaction than just using those talents for one's own ego or one's own fame or one's own income. And those talents when used for Krishna's service, they do far greater service to the world.

Because they help people to come to consciousness. So, please don't think that if you practise spirituality, you will just sit down and chant Hare Krishna. Actually, many of you are talking about your wife senior.

I was expecting 1.3 score for this, not his score. If you look at your wife senior, they have learnt so many material skills. Also, which you know, they are doing so much management, cooking is of course one thing, which they have learnt, which most people don't learn at all.

Or they learn when they go to America, they learn food systems, they try to cook. This is another one. So, they learn cooking, they learn management, they learn public speaking, they learn singing, they learn musical instruments.

In fact, the amount of things that a devotee learns even materially is far greater than what a non-devotee at the same stage learns. And regarding corporate life, one of the important Steven Covey talks about private personal success and public success. So, it is personal success, one needs self-mastery.

One needs self-discipline and self-mastery. Now, he doesn't talk about it. He talks about principles, and the book is very good in the sense that it talks about principles which one should develop, but it doesn't give any practises why you should develop the principles.

For example, if a doctor tells you, actually, you are weak because you have got anaemia. You have got anaemia. Okay, what? Increase your anaemia.

Tell me, how should I increase my anaemia? How should I cure my anaemia? So, actually, basically, what he is talking about is a mode of goodness. But how do people come to that, especially come to the mode of goodness? It is very difficult. Just my individual will go on to do that.

It is practical social life, self-mastery, confidentiality. And regarding humility, actually, one of the greatest requirements in corporate world is the ability to work in a team. And teamwork requires humility and tolerance.

Humility to hear other people's views. And tolerance because other people will not live up to our expectations. So, people who have humility and tolerance, they are the people who can gel with others in organisation.

And they are the people who succeed. Yes, we have to have ambition, we have to have drive. But ultimately, today we live in interconnected world, interdependent world.

And we cannot succeed by just putting our legs on other people's necks. We have to work in a team. Very few corporate projects today can be done in an individualistic way.

It's all teamwork. And this is the great paradox of our educational system. Our educational system provides us technical skills.

But if you go into the industry, you need technical knowledge. But more than technical knowledge, what we need is interpersonal skills. And our educational system does not feature any interpersonal skills.

On the other hand, competition in Krishna Consciousness. We learn sensitivity, we learn respectful behaviour, we learn humility. We are invulnerable in working in companies.

In fact, some of you are talking about our Krishna title, how he is a brilliant talker. But if you talk to several other devotees who are working in companies and who are working in the corporate field, because they are Krishna Conscious, there are two things happening. First is that they are able to generate different kinds of people in a way without getting too affected.

They are able to engage people, understand people, and secondly, they are able to deal with stress that I'll come to a little later. But the point is, our material talents and skills will be better utilised in Krishna Consciousness than material talents. They will be far better utilised.

Far better in the sense that we will get more funds for utilising them, we will get more satisfaction by utilising them, and others will benefit more from our talents than otherwise. Now, regarding responsibility, coming back to that point once again, there is endeavour and there is over-endeavour. Does spirituality kill our ambition? Yes, spirituality kills over-ambition.

Now, what do you mean by over-ambition? Some people, they become more or less workaholic. Actually, in America, the proportion of workaholism is as much as alcohol. In India, sometimes, it is actually seen how people glorify at the time of retirement of a particular person.

He did not take a single leave throughout the 35 years of his life. Very good. Now, to be dedicated to the work is good.

To be workaholic is a total thing. What happens is, people they get their sense of self-identity and self-worth simply from their work. Work, work, work, work, work, work.

What is this? Family. They have no time for their parents, for their spouse, for their children. Then, when the family crumbles, so many children get redirected.

So, work is an important part of life. But work is not everything in life. So, even modern culture is recognising now that workaholism is bad.

Workaholism is bad. Actually, Indians should not get realised. Indians think this is good.

If you go to America, you will find that they don't work like 16 hours and 18 hours. They work 8-10 hours and they make Indians work 16-18 hours. It's like that.

Because workaholism is dangerous. It is dangerous to the children's family. It is dangerous because it ruins health.

It causes so much stress and tension. So, Indian culture doesn't say, don't endeavour, but don't over-endeavour. Over-endeavour in a way that neglects other aspects of our life.

It neglects our health, it neglects our family, it neglects our social life. Narada Muni comes to me, Mahabharata he tells, he asks me three questions. He says, as a householder, you should take care of pleasures, profit and religion.

You should not pursue pleasure at the expense of profit and religion. That means, just don't go after karma and neglect Artha and Dharma. And he says, that means, don't just go for enjoyment and neglect your family administration and everything.

He says, don't go for profit at the expense of pleasure and religion. At the expense of pleasure and religion. So, in modern society, this is what happens.

People go for pleasure so much that they neglect profit. Some students get in so much enjoyment mode that they neglect their studies, neglect their exams, and then they are getting. And other people, they get so much in the profit mode.

Work, work, work, work, they neglect relationships, they neglect family. When we talk about pleasure, it's calm, but it's not just self-righteousness or sexual activity. It's actually the fulfilment of mental desire.

Which to an extent is necessary for most people in life. And just don't neglect religion for the sake of pleasure or profit. So, all three are being balanced.

And actually, in world culture, we have learned the balance of all these things. We have seen that we have learned this balance. So, if we are unbalanced and irresponsible, it creates chaos in our life.

This is the last point I thought. Four Ws. Carry home for you.

Don't think that studying a person is wrong. Worship time, don't take away your work time. If you take away your worry time and base time.

But all of us think that, why don't I have time? But most of us think of time in terms of activities. But actually, it's not only activities I think that it's all desires, emotions. Suppose, this is going to college.

And we are going to college. That insult may happen in just maybe 10 seconds. But the thought eats our mind for 10 hours.

And we are in the class, we are studying, we are looking at the professor, but nothing is going in the mind. What happens? The thought is so useful. Similarly, just one impression comes in the mind, so much time goes.

So, actually, if we look at our mental energy, it gets dissipated in so many directions, because we don't have control over it. So, base time if we calculate, and by practise of spirituality, by the practise of chanting Hare Krishna and Krishna consciousness, then this time gets almost deleted. It doesn't matter how much time we have.

So, nothing is worrying about it. Nothing. You know, all of us have a daily worry time.

Usually 7 to 7.30 is my worry time. Nobody has worry time like that. But all of us, or most of us at least, because we are not devotees, we pray to Krishna, worry is like a constant background worry.

When we develop faith in Krishna, the worry goes away. When worry goes away, therefore, do things like chanting Hare Krishna. In fact, what will happen is, worry time and base time will go away.

You will find that you will have time, that worship time will create more time for your work. Because time is not just in the sum of the hours of the day. In terms of the availability of our consciousness, attentiveness of our minds, time has to be valued in those terms.

And now some of you are asking, one of you are saying that, actually when we are in class, we are remembering Narsinha. Well, surely that's better than remembering some old song, which is what most people are doing. Or sometimes you see some cricket world cup was going on, some boy is walking on the road, stealing the hat, thinking that I am a bowler, I am a batsman or whatever.

So, if at all our distractions are there, it's better to have positive distractions than negative. But over a period of time, if you practise Krishna Consciousness, you will be able to focus on other things. And yes, the Narsinha, they are thoughts which come temporarily in our mind.

But actually, once we get control of our mind, then we can focus. This is what I want to focus on now. I am doing this.

How is the time for Krishna Consciousness? Usually, time for study, time for meditation. So, if this sort of distraction is happening, it is not because of Narsinha. It is because our mind has a habit to be distracted.

So, it's wonderful that it is distracted by something positive than by something negative. But as we gain more control over our mind, the distraction will decrease. And we will focus on Krishna Consciousness more and more.

So, therefore, actually, even from material point of view, we will be able to achieve much much more if we become serious devotees. Because like a serious devotee, we will get control over our minds. And once we get control over our mind, we will be able to better tap our talents, better achieve things in this era.

One of the biggest industries in India is Rishikesh Mahasala. Mahasala fabric is free. Just last week, I met him.

So, he is a devotee. He is called Krishnakund. So, I was talking with him.

So, I am one of the editors for our magazine, Back to Godhead. So, we were conducting an interview for the magazine. So, he told that, he was leading a technical materialistic life.

And he was telling that his father was from a religious family. But then, there was a crisis in India. The business world was in crisis.

The whole business nearly crumbled. And he said, at that time, most of my colleagues were in similar situations. Some of them became drunk.

Some of them committed suicide. And he was very kind to them. Because of their spiritual culture, he could guarantee chemical devotees, he would guide them, help them, inspire them.

And now, he is back in business. So, he said that, without Krishnakund, I would never have been able to do this. So, he did not need to look ambitious.

But actually, even to achieve little ambition requires steadfastness. Modern life can bring such turbulence that are steadfast and will go away. But when the spiritual life is there, then you have long-term perspective.

The long-term perspective has just reached this point. That when there is a long-term perspective, how our image is. If you understand, whatever is happening in this life is just transient.

Whether I succeed or whether I fail. What is important is whether I do my duty properly. Whether I do my duty properly.

If I am doing my, putting my best efforts, trying to give Krishna my life, then I am successful. So, now, I will do tomorrow, some of you are going to do some drama. Because in a drama, if one of you has to play the role of a, somebody who is defeated.

You know, say in wrestling, Mahabharata, one of you has to play the role of Duryodhana. And Duryodhana is defeated and killed. Now, because Duryodhana is defeated and killed, do you become defeated and killed? Or do you become rejected, depressed? This is the role.

Because if you do the drama well, at least you are defeated well. But you gain back. Why? Because you identify with the character of the drama.

So, spirituality helps us to understand that life is not just a 100 metre sprint. It is a 100 kilometre marathon. Not that one life or one success or one failure is everything.

There are many lives and there are many chances. So, even if I fail, even if I fail in one particular attempt, what does that mean? It is a multi-life drama that is going on. At one time, I happen to be on the good side.

But if I am doing my service nicely, at the end, many times, you know the, in in film awards, you know the, the villain will get the best acting award. That doesn't mean that we want to be villain. But the point is, most of the success is, especially devotees coming up to you, whether it is better success or any other success, the devotee interest rate is zero.

Because he is working for a higher purpose, a higher purpose of his mission. And because he perseveres, mental success also comes. Mental success also comes.

But spirituality by giving a longer perspective can help us sustain in our mental endeavours. Whereas, mentalistic people live up in frustration. But a devotee can sustain and go on because he has a longer perspective.

Thank you very much.